The Most Overlooked Aspect of Retirement Planning

A Knight since 1983, General Agent Robert Marlowe has been selling insurance in the greater

Baltimore area for nearly four decades. His insights show why we need to add retirement planning into our New Year’s Resolutions.

Working with Brother Knights and their wives over the past 35 years has led me to observe that it’s a natural inclination to overlook what is perhaps one of the most important aspects of retirement planning — having the sufficient amount of life insurance coverage.

Consider the elements of retirement planning that most people fully consider:

• What their income streams will be in retirement; their pension and social security amounts?
• What will their monthly expenses be?
• What their 401k or investments will yield to supplement expenses?
• Will they have sufficient health insurance coverage?

All of these areas are vital, certainly. They are the basic architecture of a good retirement plan. However, we must consider some effects death will have on our spouse. Here are some crucial facts to consider:

• The surviving spouse will receive the greater of the two social security amounts — which is about a 30 percent loss of income.
• The surviving spouse will typically receive only 50 percent of their spouse’s pension (if they have one).
• Most group life insurance either reduces greatly or entirely upon retirement.
• There is a strong probability that one of the two spouses will live into their 90s and an early death could leave a surviving spouse 20-30 years to live with these reduced incomes.
• Term insurance will eventually become cost prohibitive or terminate in coverage as the spouse ages.
• Health care costs and taxes will go up — the longer the surviving spouse is alive, these costs can impinge on budgets.

So what is the answer? A simple analysis by your Knights of Columbus field agent will help you address retirement financial planning: a permanent life insurance policy that will never go up in cost and has a built-in guaranteed cash value. I like to call this the last “love letter” you will write to your spouse.

By purchasing a life insurance policy from Knights of Columbus, you make a choice to make a difference — not only for your family, but for the many charitable and humanitarian causes our organization supports.

For more information and to find a local field agent in your area, visit kofc.org/faa.